Führer
by thelogicalpenny
Summary: Mustang's coronation as Führer of Amestis has finally arrived. But things do not go quite as planned. Royai. Rated T for violence. Written for LadyAvatar.
1. Roy

Mustang stepped up to the podium and began his speech. He just let the words flow and didn't even really bother to process what he was saying. He'd practiced this speech enough times over the years, all in preparation for this day. As of five minutes ago, he, Roy Mustang, was Führer of Amestris, but more importantly Riza was at his side. They'd been married for one month. Grumman had been kind enough to ensure they had time for their honeymoon before he retired, after all, Riza was his granddaughter, and he had made it clear he wanted grandkids (besides the adopted Selim Bradley). Roy let a broad grin spread across his face as he began to conclude his speech. Today was a day for the country to celebrate; the country was settling into an era of prosperity and was looking at a promising future.

Mustang dropped his hands to signal the end of his speech and the audience broke out in thunderous applause. As he shifted his right heel back in order to turn away from the microphones he heard a bang come from his ten and a half. His head whipped around (even though he knew he wouldn't actually see anything) just as he felt a familiar hand push his chest sharply to the right and another gun discharged not a foot in front of him.

Roy felt a body stumble into his. He caught the person, Riza. No. NO. She hadn't. Had she? Roy's hands shook as he caught her. Her body slumped and he lowered her to the ground, cradling her in his arms.

The crowd was frantic and he could hear the other officers barking commands to the military men stationed around the plaza. He tuned them out focusing on the one thing at hand. The single thing he _could. not. lose._ "Riza! What happened! Are you alright! Report!" His words barked out as he slipped into military mode. This. Was. Not. Happening. A rattled gasp escaped her mouth and her body seized up and then relaxed. As he hurriedly started checking for injuries

Riza slowly responded to his question "Don't worry about me Roy." Mustang felt dampness. Blood. Lots of it. No. She had done it the one thing she'd done for so many years. Protect him. Mustang found her hand, and in it, her .38. That gun she wasn't supposed to have. It wasn't "proper" for the Führer's wife to be armed. But there was no way Riza would ever let herself go unarmed. She was still the sharpest shot in all of Amestris, and she still considered herself his personal bodyguard despite having officially retired.

"I got them. They didn't get you. That's _ALL _that matters."  
"Riza don't you dare leave me. We have unfinished business. The doctors will fix you up. Don't you DARE let go." Mustang felt tears start to run down his face. They rolled off his face a mixed with the blood covering his hands as he fiercely tried to staunch Riza's blood loss.

"Oh Roy," Riza sighed as a small smile crossed her face despite the pain she felt in her chest. She reached a shaky hand up to caress Mustang's cheek. Mustang grasped her hand tightly and held onto it. "Promise me... one thing," her words coming slower and slower as she forced each one out. Each word fainter than the previous. "Don't change. Don't _ever_ change. Okay?"

"I won't. Now you just hold on Riza hold on."

Mustang felt her hand go limp and her body slumped. "No" he whispered. "Please, please. PLEASE no." His voice chocked and he couldn't speak any longer. He slammed his fist into the stage. He clutched her body close to his and his head tipped back as hot tears began to roll down his face.


	2. Riza

"…I am grateful for these past years you have allowed me to be your leader. It is with great honor that I present to you your new Führer of Amestris. Roy Mustang!" Grumman's arm swept up to his side to recognize his replacement. He paused to shake Mustang's hand as Roy stepped up to the podium. Riza smiled at her grandfather and gave him a hug as he stepped to her left, allowing her to remain closest to Roy.

She was so happy for him. She couldn't stop smiling. He'd worked so hard, through all these years, to get himself to this spot. His plans that had seemed so idealistic and naive at first glance. Especially to those who didn't know him. But he'd pulled them all in with that exact same idealism and determination, and they had done it. They had pushed him all the way to the top. Where he could take those ideas and run, forging this country into something better, more complete and whole than it had been in a long while, if it ever had been whole to begin with. She twisted the ring on her left hand as she scanned the crowd soaking in their reactions. Still seemed odd, and yet _so_ right, that after all this time, they were finally each other's completely and irrevocably. Not that anyone who'd known them for more than twenty minutes would have been able to sensibly claim otherwise beforehand.

Riza heard Roy begin to wrap up his speech. She'd heard him muttering his speech so often these past few weeks _she_ had it memorized. Her eyes trailed slowly back off of Roy and over the crowd again, half looking for the friends she knew would be scattered around the plaza. She easily spotted Major Armstrong sitting in the front row next to Gracia and Elicia; Roy had made sure they had spots reserved for them for everything Hughes had done. In the middle of the pack she thought she caught a glimpse of Ed and Al, but just as soon as she spotted them they were hidden by the shifting motion of the crowd. The sun reflected off something towards the back of the crowd. Probably someone's sunglasses. No. That flash was too bright and far larger than something like sunglasses. The smile on her face started to slip as she tried to get a better look. She knew there were guards posted all over the area, and she herself had watched the military sweep the area for potential threats, but that gleam did _not_ look right.

The gun caught the sunlight and reflected the beam once more. Riza's instincts kicked in and she was already moving towards Roy and pulling her pistol out of its holster underneath the left panel of her jacket as the crowd broke out in applause. But she couldn't hear it. Her mind was filled with one thought and one thought only.

Protect Roy.

As he stepped back from the podium she launched herself between him and the sniper her left hand reaching back and shoving Roy out of the way as her right hand snapped the pistol in front of her and fired two rounds in such quick succession the reports blended into one. Even as she fired her gun, she felt the bullet the sniper had managed to release before she executed him lodge itself into her chest. The sight of her moving must have forced him to fire before he was ready, no self-respecting sniper would aim this low, the head was the cleanest, surest shot, and she was shorter than Roy.

The force of the bullet slamming into her combined with the recoil from her gun forced her backwards right into Roy.

She felt Roy catch her and break her fall before laying her down on the ground. Mustang's voice pierced roar of the frantic crowd and the battle focus her mind had entered the second that rifle had caught the sun. "Riza! What happened! Are you alright! Report!" Riza tried to catch enough breath to tell him she was fine, but instead only a gasp came out and she felt her whole body sieze up before she managed to pull in enough air. Dammit. The bullet must have punctured a lung. Combined with the blood she felt seeping out of the wound she knew she was a mess. But she couldn't let Roy know that. She had to protect him.

"Don't worry about me Roy." She instructed him. After all, he was the one they were trying to kill. He really shouldn't be out here in the open. "You need to get out of here Roy." She watched as he started checking her for injuries since. Trying to feel where they had hit her since he couldn't see the wound. Evidently his selective hearing was kicking in if his lack of response was any way to tell. Where was Armstrong? Or Grumman? Surely one of them could help her talk some sense into him. She saw his hand start to tremor, so slightly anyone else would have missed it, as he found the hole the gun had left. As he felt the copious amounts of blood soaking her shirt. "I got them. They didn't get you. That's ALL that matters." He was the one this country needed, not her. Roy's right hand probed the wound and she saw the question in his face. Could he burn the wound closed as he'd done to himself and havoc all those years ago under the fifth laboratory? Could he stop the blood loss? "Sorry Roy," she whispered. "That won't work this time. The bullet's still in there and closing the wound'll only make it worse."

Roy must have sensed the defeat in her voice, even if he hadn't heard the exact words. "Riza don't you dare leave me. We have unfinished business. The doctors will fix you up. Don't you DARE let go." That's an order. He didn't have to say those words. She knew what he meant. Don't leave him. Don't leave him alone in this world. He needed her just like she needed him. Had their roles been reversed, had that bullet been meant for her and he'd known it was coming, she knew he'd be the one on the ground right now with her cradling him in her arms. His hands pressed harder, trying to keep as much precious blood in her body as he could.

"Oh, Roy" she smiled as she looked at the man she loved. All the lines on his face, the emotion in his sightless eyes just reminded her just why she had a ring on her left hand. Why she had devoted her life to this man and would do it a thousand times over if given the chance. Her hand reached up to hold his face, feel his skin beneath her hand. Her hand caressed his face trying to tell him I'm sorry Roy. I don't know if I can follow that order. The tears rolling freely down his face. She remembered the last time she'd seen him cry this bad. Hughes's funeral. No. She wouldn't _couldn't_ let him go back to that place. The country needed the man she knew, not that grief stricken man that had taken his place at that time. "Promise me... one thing," she spoke slowly. It was getting harder and harder to breathe. Harder to keep her focus. But he needed to hear this. Needed to remember. Needed to know. "Don't change. Don't ever change. Okay?"

"I won't. Now you just hold on Riza hold on." She heard the urgency in in voice. She heard everything he wasn't saying. Everything he wouldn't let himself say because he wouldn't let this be the end. "I love you" she spoke so quietly she wasn't sure he could hear her.

Mustang's hand held hers and she squeezed it so gently, trying to convey all the thoughts in her head.

It hurt. She could feel every slow beat of her heart. Could feel every place where Mustang held her, protecting her as she lay there. He's got me, she thought. Her hand felt like lead. It was so hard to keep it up. He's here, she thought.

The sun was so bright. Her eyes couldn't focus, it was shining right in her face. She blinked a few times, trying to clear her sight, before allowing them to close.


End file.
